Michael Irvin
Irvin in 2023 | |||||||||
| No. 88 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | March 5, 1966 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 207 lb (94 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) | ||||||||
| College: | Miami (FL) (1984–1987) | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1988: 1st round, 11th pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football player. He played his entire 12-year career as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Irvin played college football for the Miami Hurricanes and was selected in the first round of the 1988 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He spent his entire 12-year NFL career from 1988 to 1999 with the Cowboys before it ended abruptly from a cervical fracture of his spine sustained in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Veterans Stadium on October 10, 1999, in which Irvin was carted off the field and transported to a Philadelphia hospital.
Irvin was nicknamed "the Playmaker" due to his penchant for making big plays in big games during his college and pro careers, and he relished the nickname, even acquiring "PLY MKR" as his Texas vanity license plate. Along with Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, Irvin was one of three key Cowboys offensive players, known as "The Triplets", who led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins in 1992, 1993, and 1995.
Irvin is widely considered to be one of the greatest wide receivers of all time.
Irvin is a former broadcaster for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown and currently an analyst for NFL Network. In 2009, he competed in Season 9 of Dancing with the Stars and was the season's ninth contestant to be eliminated.
He is one of the co-hosts of the FS1 weekday debate show Speak with Paul Pierce, Keyshawn Johnson, and Joy Taylor.